The popular perception of creative thinkers and artists is that they often also have mental disorders—the likes of Vincent van Gogh or Sylvia Plath suggest that creativity and madness go hand in hand. Past research has tentatively confirmed a correlation; scientific surveys have found that highly creative people are more likely to have mental illness in their family, indicating a genetic link. Now a study from Sweden is the first to suggest a biological mechanism: highly creative healthy people and people with schizophrenia have certain brain chemistry features in common.
A research team at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm studied 13 mentally healthy, highly creative men and women. As noted in the paper published in May in PLoS ONE, other scientists had previously found that divergent thinking, or the ability to “think outside the box,” involves the brain’s dopamine communication system. The Swedish research team used PET scanning to determine the abundance of a particular dopamine receptor, or sensor, in the creative individuals’ thalamus and striatum, areas that process and sort information before it reaches conscious thought—and that are known to be involved in schizophrenia. The team found that people who had lower levels of dopamine receptor activity in the thalamus also had higher scores on tests of divergent thinking—for instance, finding many solutions to a problem.
Previous work has shown that people with schizophrenia also have lower dopamine receptor activity in the thalamus—and the scientists suggest in their paper that this striking similarity demonstrates a “crucial” link between creativity and psychopathology. “Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box,” writes lead author Fredrik Ullén, a cognitive scientist at Karolinska.
This article was originally published with the title The Mad Artist's Brain.
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24 Comments
Add CommentThis is very inyereting. Vilayanur Ramachandran asserts that synesthesia is related to creativity. So that such interconnectedness of the senses transposes shapes into sounds - such as sharp edges transliterate into sharp sounds etc. E G the letter K has a sharp edge to the sound and is a picture of a sharp edge.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFrom this it appears that language itself is highly synesthetic in character and I suggested at 'Toward A Science of Consciousness 2010' that the discovery of mirrors tuned the senses so that they accurately allowed passage of data through these synesthetic channels or networks.
Julian Jaynes argued that before the advent of language - everyone was schizophrenic (living their lives according to voices in their heads of the Gods)
So the organisation of the brain according to the logic of language removed this schizophrenia.
I argue that it was the discovery of metallurgy and with it the advent of mirrors that caused this rise in the complexity of language because we implicitly learned from mirrors to tune our senses in accord with the sound of our voice, the expressions we first saw on our face and the touch of our hand (holding the mirror)
reflectogenesis@hotmail.co.uk
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPeter Reynolds
Nicholas Humphrey positted that the artistic savant Nadia -who could draw in a similar fashion to cave artists 40000 years ago at age 3 - could only do so because she lacked language. After she learned language she could no longer draw.
Thus these observations including Ramachandran's appear to relate language to the dopamine system through synesthetic connections.
It is easy to see that copying oneself in a mirror would produce a resonance or resonances in the dopamine system described, producing a dramatic positive feedback which would enhance synesthetic connectivity.
I suggested at the conference - that viewing oneself in a mirror for the first time would cause positive feedback so to effectively cause an 'orgasm' or even today - as we have become sensitized to our own image - we still get a 'buzz' from seeing ourself in a mirror.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI suggested that the pharoahs worshipped their own image in a mirror - which I suggest was the cause of obsession with phalic symbolism at the time - represented everywhere in artefacts of ancient Egypt.
These 'orgasms' coincided with the tuning of synesthetic neuron systems which effectively produced complex mirror neuron systems whilst they also instantiated linguistic ability. This is why writing effectively started in Egypt.
A failure in this mirror/mirror neuron system might effectively cause autism. An attention deficit might lead to an inability to track ones own image in a mirror, an defect which with positive feedback would run out of control and lead to a failure in language and so of consciousness.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSuch attention deficits have also been noted in prisoners in the US who demonstrate a high percentage of psychopathy - of which schizophrenia is closely related. This propensity to see oneself - or inability to do so would be transmitted genetically as under certain circumstances it may be beneficial.
There are many famous psychopaths.
Peter Reynolds Reflectogenesis@hotmail.co.uk
The point about viewing oneself in the mirror and experiencing an orgasm or orgasm like sensation seems interesting...could you elaborate more or where could one find out more about this topic..or it could just have to do with one's ego..and superiority - therefore positive response..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think the obsession with phalic symbols in the culture of pharonic Egypt might be related to this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCould it be the origin of orgasms themselves and why some have orgasm and some don't?
I think there would be a resonance when one first viewed oneself in a mirror because the brain would be able to predict what your face was doing for the first time - what you were 'thinking'.
I think this is of untold importance because I think this is how language was instantiated in the mind. Through orgasmic realisations of universal concepts.
May be where Platos 'Forms' originate - in neural resonances instantiated in the mirror.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo one could see ones soul.
Peter Reynolds
Reflectogenesis@hotmail.co.uk
This is my theory - so I don't think you can read it anywhere. It is enthralling.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou see what I mean - i.e. seeing oneself in a mirror would allow you to predict what you were going to do - and this process would be a positive feedback loop working on the dopamine reward centers. leading to a cascde of chemical and neuronal response.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOr in other words - '''THINKING''''
Peter reynolds
reflectogenesis@hotmail.com
Thinking on the hoof - and this cascade could only be harnessed by a fractal pattern of neuronal firing response.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this..........which is exactly what one sees in neuronal firing patterns in the brain.
Peter Reynolds
Reflectogenesis@hotmail.co.uk
Two points:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFirst, I don't see why Mr. Reynolds couldn't have written all of this is half as many comments.
Second, the advent of "mirrors" hardly co-incided with the invention of metallurgic technology. There are many other mechanisms of viewing one's own image which do not require the construction of artificial mirrors (e.g. water).
I should also point out that your timeline hardly fits well with our understanding of evolution or even our knownledge about the origins of human language.
Watch Youtube videos of monkeys given small mirrors. Their overt reactions suggest that they have never seen themselves before 'as they are' as distinct from 'through the eyes of others'. Even though - like the first humans they have had effectively millions of years to see their own reflection in water. Reflections in water are fragile and would have confered no evolutionary advantage.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWriting and I suggest mirrors followed the brobze age.
The important point about portable mirrors is that they produce synesthetic connectivity between hand and eye and the noises we make. This coordination will have been easily tuned by feedback in the dopamine system.
Perhaos this system has been sensitized in artistic and schizophrenic to reduce uncontrollable feedback by reducing dopamine recepyors.
Peter Reynolds
reflectogenesis@hotmail.co.uk
this effect was implicit and is not even understood until today - so language followed the spread of mirrors.
So modern humans (from about 8000 years ago) did not evolve - they accidentally discovered mirrors. Prior to this - 50000 years ago - they separated from other hominids who had evolved to support deafness and blindness. The offspring of the deaf and blind had super sensory abilities to sense and so understand motion - making them the first humans.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAn intriguing possibility!!!!!!. Human orgasm as distinct from 'ejaculation' first occurred due to the use of mirrors, Caused by positive feedback in the dopamine system or its resonance.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs women would have first used mirrors more - for vanity - then...........Is this why the first figurative art was totally feminine. These humans had the ability to use mirrors - or at least their naturally occurring reflection. Is the bas relief of a woman holding a cornucopia really using a mirror.?
Was this the attraction of Anthony for Cleopatra?.Makes a lot of sense.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPeter reynolds
Reflectogenesis@hotmail.co.uk
The offspring of two parents, both being schizophrenic, is divided in three parts: one third are sane, one third is "peculiar" and the last third are schizophrenics too.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHold on here. Monkeys are not humans. Not even close. Their cognitive abilities are so distinct from our own as to make this analogy entirely meaningless. (As a side note, I feel that I should inform you that our ancestral lines diverged millions of years ago!)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlright, having looked at some of your other comments, I've decided you are simply a troll. Forget I said anything.
I'm not comparing monkeys with humans.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut rather monkeys with prehumans - hominids.
I am suggesting that - given portable mirrors - some species actually become conscious (or self aware)when given mirrors to hold.
This activity rewires/reorganises connections in the somatosensory cortex to allow feedback between hand eye and mouth/voice.
This feedback creates strong neural connectivity (may be mirror neuron systems embracing gesture/auditory /vocal/ visual mechanisms).
Such rewiring is seen in the deaf and the blind in the remaining sense modalities enhancing the abilities of the remaining sense modalities.
Plasticity in neural processes is a feature of brains.
I suggest that the connections created by the use of mirrors creates plasticity by linking separate sense modalities in feedback loops using external reference data to act as an brain independent focus of all sense modalities. So if the organism (we) are damaged we can use representations of the outside world to focus our undamaged abilities so that we can compensate for any such damage.
Thus mirrors imparted upon hominids with very plastic brains which are damage tolerant. Hence we needed thinner skulls and had lesser birth mortality.
Neanderthals, having less neural plasticity had thicker skulls and higher infant mortality - leading to a stasis in their evolution.
Whe I say 'brain independent' - I mean - not structurally connected to the brain'.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe mirror does of course provide a mechanistic link of the brain - to the brain- in as much as the braing is watching in the mirror what the physical result of its own processes in the outside world.
So it can compare its own activity with the resultant activities in the outside world and from a range of different physical perspectives thanks to the mirror.
For the first time the brain can produce a vast pespectival databank of views of the results of its own activity, in particular the facial expressions it produces and the shape of 'its own mouth' in conjunction with the sounds and gestures it is responsible for in conjuntion with this movement.
Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthat this Peter Reynolds commenter may fit into the "mad Artist" catagory? .... just saying.....
;)
Reynolds HAS to be kidding, otherwise he should get treated for his delusions. Totally absurd.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOnto the article, are you sure "people who had lower levels of dopamine receptor activity in the thalamus"...?, compare with:
"Unusually high dopamine activity in the mesolimbic pathway of the brain has been found in people with schizophrenia. The mainstay of treatment is antipsychotic medication; this type of drug primarily works by suppressing dopamine activity."
Mirrors are unique in the natural world. The accidental discovery of a portable mirror produces unique synesthetic feedback loops which do not occur antwhere else in the natural world.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow else could we see the expressions on our own faces and calibrate our own physical facial response with the origin of the signals our brain sends to it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor the first time we would be able to see what our face was doing in response to what is going on in our head. And moreover gain some degree of control of it for the purposes of advancing our social goals.
The mirror tuned our mimicarily derived communicational abilities so that it attained a new level - and entered a new dimension. The dimension of the 'mind'.
The research is interesting but flawed in its conclusion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMany artists are creative in need of expression, due to few understanding the way they think.
As an artist, my family had no traits of mental illness. The one trait we all have are broken family units, such as living with one parent, worried about finances and divorce problems between parents as a child. Under stress, a child resorts to creative expression to cope and be free.
I hardly see it as a mental illness, but a way of dealing with everyday stress. It is better than becoming an alcoholic, smoker, or criminal. We create and push the everyday thinking.
This industry in the past few years has become copiers of the past, repeating the same story plot or becoming so simple without substance. Which most likely spurs a new generation of artists that want to create something new and inspiring for the public.
My goal as an artist is to inspire new perspective, educate, and be a voice for the public. (for they are the audience)